Hello,
I'm 22, 5"8', doing full body weight lifting 3 times per week and trying to recover from a horribly done dirty bulk, I apologize if some of the things I say sound unnatural, I'm French.

I've been cutting since the 21th of june, dirty bulked until I hit 165lbs at ~ 22% bodyfat and didn't realize how disgusting I looked until I took a picture :

Pretty damn bad.

Decided to go on a cut, directly put myself in the 1300-1500kcal range (used to bulk at like 4000kcal with a couch potato lifestyle lmao, a recipe for disaster), weighing all my foods and making sure I get enough activity during the day (mostly walking 3-5 miles and doing cardio 2 times a week).

Kept doing this until the 14th of July, lost enough fat to have a 4 pack while flexing :

Started my first cycle of RFL on the 15th of July, until the 27th. By the end of the cycle I was starting to have a glimpse of a "6 pack" without flexing, definitely didn't get enough protein, some days would be as low as 600kcal, most days were at 800kcal, and I didn't have enough energy to complete my workouts or even walk as much as I used to, felt really miserable but the fat was melting off, didn't binge a single time, I looked like this after the cycle :

Took a 3 days break at maintenance and then started another RFL cycle, current cycle ends tomorrow, really can't wait to eat some food, I feel incredibly miserable. Here are a few progress pics, at this point I have a visible 6-pack under good lighting conditions without flexing, still can pinch some fat though. not flexing flexinghttps://puu.sh/x9cy5/dabd2959d6.png

Do not mind the headphones lmao, I lift at home.

Right now I sit at 143lbs, that's a 22lbs weight loss (wouldn't be able to tell how much water weight there was) under 2 months, would estimate my bodyfat to be at ~12%, I seem to carry most of my fat in my legs and lower back, my abs were the first part to lean out.

My next plan is to take a 4-5 days break, eating at maintenance during those days (like 2000kcal), and then start another 10 days cycle of RFL to get to 10% bf, really hope I can succeed.

Strength wise I seem to be fine on my main lifts, kept my added weights on my chin ups (+90lbs for ~ 5reps) and weighted dips (+90lbs for ~ 10 reps), so basically the only loss of strength is my reduction in bodyweight, that's -22lbs for both lifts. I'm hoping that strength will come back once I start (LEAN!!!) bulking after the next RFL cycle I'm going to do.

I'm really happy about how all of this is going, this is my first serious cut and I've never been so lean. Really can't wait to see how I look after that last RFL cycle, I will post frequent updates after my 5 days break.

Realized I had done much more cardio than I thought looking at my heart rate monitor stats, no wonder I feel so bad, all that fatigue must have accumulated.

That last august workout was an attempt at adding cardio, as you can see my body pretty much told me to go die lmao.

While it probably increased my existing deficit by a lot, it also probably ruined my energy levels, no wonder it's unallowed during RFL, during many days I even walked up to 20 miles on top of that, yeah, I probably should have let the diet do its job.

Today's my last day of this cycle of rfl, gonna get my protein and lift some, I do not expect to perform well but it's to be expected at this point, will stay at 850kcals, 195 grams of protein, then tomorrow I'm back to maintenance !!!

Still, very nice job by staying disciplined. You're actually doing a hybrid version of RFL and ERFL.

Why do you take such a short break between 2 RFL cycles? I think it's a lot smarter to take 2 weeks off and start again. Especially since you're cat 1.

Thanks man

Well, the book does say that it's better to take 2 weeks off, and I've read about all the advantages of doing so, but being unreasonable and a big fan of deadlines I'd feel better if I got to my goal before the end of August, especially with how fast my fat is melting off. I really like that feeling.

Though, I'm definitely keeping the 2 weeks off option in mind, and if I don't feel better mentally after staying in maintenance for a few days, I'm definitely going to stay there for as long as needed

I'm so unreasonnable lmao, decided to skip the diet break and keep the rfl going until August 24, I suddenly started feeling good and my strength is still the same so I think I can handle it, here's a recent pic.

Abs obliques and pecs will definitely need some more love once I start lean bulking, hopefully they'll get a bit bigger once I refill my glycogen reserves.

Really satisfied.

I'm using a standing desk setup these days, trying to stand for 10-12 hours a day, still eating 600-800kcal of protein a day. Still no desire to binge, I think I'm going to be able to finish that, 8 more days to go !

Another day of RFL that's going quite well, drank some coffee in the morning, it increased my energy level by a lot, I feel really good, got my 800kcals and stood up all day.

Ab definition is improving on a daily basis, there's still a small pouch of fat that I can pinch around my belly button, but it's going away slowly so I'm not too worried about it.

Legs and glutes have barely changed in composition, I store most of my stubborn fat there it seems, not going to complain about it though, my priority being my upper body, being able to have a cut upper body without going too low in overall bf% sounds good to me.

Today felt a bit harder than yesterday, still maintening my strength but I had a small craving after lifing so I ate 200 calories of protein after my workout, putting me at a 1000 calories total today, nothing too bad, stood up all day again.

I've ordered a treadmill so I can set up a treadmill desk, I really feel better standing all day rather than sitting or lying in my bed.

Only 4 days left, I'm holding a pretty high amount of water I think, can't wait for the next whoosh.

Thanks for the link ! That bike looks pretty good, I used to have a similar setup, in fact I'm actually selling my exercise bike and replacing it with the treadmill because I don't feel comfortable sitting for too long, whereas standing up and especially walking feels good.

Today went pretty well, ate my 800 cals, and am feeling pretty satiated, only 3 days left until I'm going to raise my calories, currently devising a strategy that'd feel good psychologically.

Was thinking of bumping up my cals to 1100 and raising them by 100 cals every 3 days, this way I'll be getting more and more food while still staying at a large (to moderate and then small) deficit for a while, surely that'll take care of the little amount of fat that's still bothering me while providing a progressive feel good effect, I'll probably stay at 2000 cals for a week once I get to it, not sure what my maintenance level is going to be but that sounds conservative enough to me judging by my activity level. After that I'll try bulking at 2200-2300 cals or more, depending on how my weight evolves (going for 1lb a month)

This wouldn't be following the RFL protocol anymore of course, but that's a plan that makes me comfortable psychologically wise while potentially providing good results, so I'm going with it

I've never been so vascular. It's been two days since I've last weight trained so I'm not sure what's happening, could it be my glycogen stores getting refilled or something, or maybe the change in salt intake ?

The vascularity also keeps increasing over time, I'm really liking this. I think I went 600 cals above maintenance today, tomorrow I'll be back to 1000 cals under maintenance so it should bring a 400kcals deficit over two days, I'm fine with that.